Writings by Edgar Allan Poe Insight

Thesis: The act of death is that of many intricate parts. It is destined, at times a mystery that is sought, frequently sudden and ill accepted, and recurrently caused by vengeance lacking true justice. Title: “Conqueror Worm”

In life lies destiny, in destiny lies death. The poem “Conqueror Worm” by Edgar Allan Poe exemplifies this fact by portraying man as a tragedy and a worm as the hero. The poem is set as a play with a plot telling of sin, madness, and horror. The angels are the audience members, man is shown as mimes that fly around as mere puppets, and the writhing Conqueror Worm surfaces at the climax of the play and devours said mimes. After the curtain’s fall the angels then confirm “that the play is the tragedy “Man”, and its hero the Conqueror Worm.” The theme of this poem is conveyed to the reader in the quote “The mimes become its food”. The meaning of this is that in the end, all of man is destined to die and become worm food. His use of diction in the choosing of the word “become” instead of a word such as “are” tells the reader that man is not born as worm food, but as destiny catches up they will inevitably succumb to such a fate. Additionally, although the Conqueror Worm is the collection of all worms that ultimately devour man’s bodies, it is also the embodiment of death itself. Surprisingly, Poe uses this embodiment of death as the protagonist of the story. This then creates the conflict of Man vs. Death, or more simply Character vs. Nature. Man is the Character while Death is Nature. Sadly, in such a conflict Nature always prevails. This conflict thus gives more support to the idea that death is but the destiny of man. This ending destiny is...